9/11

Hello, Younglings. It's Patriot Day. And I'm going to tell you why.

September 11, 2001. It was a Tuesday. Kobe, Number One, was only 5 months old. Poppa Don and I were living in Sanford, Colorado. I was teaching high school Spanish and fifth through twelfth grade band.

I got up that day and went to school as usual, just two blocks down the street. Poppa Don was preparing to load up Clifford and head back to Arkansas to work a show; don't remember what that would have been. As I was starting the Spanish 1 class in my upstairs classroom, just before the bell rang, Poppa Don came by to say goodbye, and said when he stopped by the Sanford General Store he'd heard that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings. He wasn't sure if it as just an accident or a possible terrorist attack.
We were on Mountain Time, two whole hours behind Eastern Time, and weren't in the habit of turning on the TV first thing in the morning, so by that time I believe the first tower was starting to fall. He suggested just going about the day as usual, which I did, to not upset the students.

I didn't usually eat lunch in the cafeteria, but I went by there before going to the band hall. I remember a TV being on in there, but I didn't look at it. It was probably just showing a commercial or something similar. We still weren't really sure what was happening so school wasn't dismissed and I got home around three-thirty, and that's when I turned on the TV.

I was shocked. It was surreal, like watching some kind of action film. I remember talking to Memaw, either that night or the next day, and she said, "Where's Superman?" The buildings falling, dust everywhere, people jumping...it was horrifying. My cousin, Maurin, was working in DC at the time at a building site and saw the plane hit the Pentagon. She and her co-workers looked up and thought, "Wow, that plane's flying really low."

Out on the road, Poppa Don saw people lining up at the gas stations, fearing gas prices would go sky high and no one would be able to travel. He remembers the sky that day, clear and blue with no clouds, and no contrails since they'd grounded all air flights that day. How could something so tragic happen on such a beautiful day?

On top of all this, Sanford Schools suffered its own tragedy. A student named Chanci Espinoza, (she wasn't in my classes but I knew who she was), was riding her bike along one of the roads through town with her brother, who was in wheelchair with spina bifada, and a car came by and accidentally struck her. The sun had been in the driver's eyes and she had been difficult to see. I'm not sure if this happened on September 11 or the night before, but I recall someone saying that as Chanci lay in the hospital she mentioned how concerned she was for those in New York, DC, and Pennsylvania. Chanci didn't survive the accident, and we had a memorial service at the gymnasium that following Saturday.

When tragedies like 9/11 occur, and have such an impact on a nation as a whole, artists of all kinds turn to their creativity in order to cope, and to help others cope. I feel it is my obligation as a teacher of music to present some of these compositions to my students every year to commemorate that day, and to never forget.

This year, I have students who were merely infants during 9/11. I encourage them to talk to their parents and grandparents and learn their stories, because they WILL remember that day.

Though there are many to choose from, the two musical pieces I show are the following:

"Undivided"

Bon Jovi's "Undivided" from Bounce, 2003. I was going to grad school in Greeley and working at Hastings when this album dropped, and this was the opening song. I still have one of the promo posters we had in the store. This album was one of their best. (I really miss Richie Sambora.) I love the video. "Bring One Thing That Represents the Best in YOU." 

Watch the homeless man, Younglings.

The other is this:

"On the Transmigration of Souls"

"On the Transmigration of Souls," John Adams, an American composer my class will discuss later in the semester. This piece was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003. I prefer this video, even though it isn't the entire piece, because it features pictures of what happened that day. The piece itself reminds me a lot of Charles Ives' "The Unanswered Question." Though heartbreaking to watch, it needs to be seen. I only show the first three minutes. Any more and I would fall to pieces.

I will have to do this again tomorrow for my AV class. In some ways I dread having to do it all again, but it's my duty as an educator to remind my students how important this day is, and how we must do everything in our power to keep it from happening again. Those were people who just got up and went to work that day in a nice, air-conditioned office to take care of regular, non-dangerous business. Or were just taking an average every day plane ride. And now they're gone, because four men learned to become pilots and flew planes into buildings. No bombs, no guns. Airplanes. And the day after, nobody cared about political parties or....whatever. They cared about each other and mourned the loss of their loved ones and people they didn't even know.

There's a quote from the movie "Starman" where Jeff Bridges' character says, "You are at your best, when things are worst."

Remember that, Younglings. #neverforget